The separation of Earth and Sky
Firstly, he crafted for children of men
Heaven as roof, holy creator.
[from Cædmon’s Hymn; my own translation]
In Indo-European traditions, Earth Mother and Sky Father are generally worshipped as the two of the primary deities. However, many of these same mythologies, as well as others across the world, tell of a primordial separation between earth and sky, potentially effected by some third god or hero figure, albeit the details are somewhat hazy or disconsonant.
Adopting an etymological perspective, according to Wiktionary, the English word ‘heaven’ derives “from Proto-West Germanic *hebn (“heaven, sky”), of uncertain origin.”
If, however, we were to speculate more freely, taking a lead from the quote above, we may canvas a possible connection with the English word ‘hebban’, meaning ‘to lift’ or ‘to raise’, made plausible when we think of the sky as something that has been raised up as a firmament or heavenly vault. This line of thought gains further strength when we consider the many creation myths about the separation of earth and sky to make room in the cosmos for us. The Book of Genesis seems to imply a kind of division of what was at first unified in the following words -
“And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and…
